(This is a sequel to my unfinished story Coffee and Heart Shaped Cookies, and I honestly just don't see a need to finish that one to start this one, though, I won't mark it as completed, because technically it is not, but this will tie up any loose ends that story left. And I know, it's been literal years since I updated it, or have done anything with it. But I just came up with the idea and decided to try it out for Nanowrimo, it does take the OG idea I had for the ending of the last one, like, these first parts would have been the epilogue, and now I will continue it on. As for how I plan on writing it, I made the other story long chapters and it was only supposed to be three chapters long, and then it grew to about six, I think. However, this one will be chaptered, so shorter chapters, but a longer story over all. I hope you enjoy it and some people who might have read it before come back! And if you are new, please do read that story first, it explains a lot, I'm not sure if it's technically needed, I'll do flashbacks or have them explain something, but, I mean, it's a pretty good story, so...check it out.)

Beep. Beep...BEEP!

Arthur leaned over and hit the button on the clock, the one that he thought would shut the damn thing up, but it only continued to beep and make his head hurt. He might be slightly hungover, too much wine does that to you, especially when you're having an uncomfortable dinner with your father and twin sister. And maybe Arthur's life hadn't exactly gone to plan, he didn't have a cookie cutter life, but who wanted that? So, Morgana, with her perfect husband and cute baby didn't mean literally anything to Arthur. Of course he liked them, her little girl was pretty adorable and Arthur loved being an uncle to her, he might want to have a daughter of his own one day, but that didn't make Morgana better than him, even if she liked to believe it did. And Uther, with his fawning over Morgana and her daughter like they were his stars and moon, well...it annoyed Arthur, after all, Arthur was the first one to give him a grandchild.

Speaking of said child, there he was at the door.

Knock, knock, knock...

"Why...?!" Arthur called out, and the boy didn't hesitate to swing open the door and smile a big smile at his father, whom saw it between blurred lines. He felt what might be left over spinners and closed his eyes again. "I'm busy, leave a message after the beep."

"Which one?" he asked, and Arthur rolled his closed eyes. There was that bit of his mother shining through. Sassy, quick, rude...Arthur smiled, despite the fact that he was being disrespected by his son, again, and reopened his eyes. He raised one tired eyebrow and his son looked back with a inquisitive look. "What's up, Pops?"

"Don't call me, Pops," Arthur retorted, throwing the blankets off himself and swung his feet over the edge of the bed. "Call me, Pops again, and I'll call you Mordred, or Dreddie, again."

Modrie cringed and took a step back, covering his heart. "I am hurt, Father, how dare you?!"

"It's your name!" Arthur retorted, standing up and rubbing his head. He just remembered now, that is was Saturday, so why the hell did he set his clock?

"Because your dumb friend gave Mum the idea," Mordie expressed, though, was now more interested in shutting Arthur's useless alarm clock up. Arthur couldn't argue with him there, however, and headed into the bathroom. "At least your name wasn't Potty John, that was my idea."

"Potty Pendragon," Arthur heard him say, as he started to brush his teeth "Nice!"

Arthur laughed and almost chocked on his toothpaste.

XXX

It was nearing 10 AM, at this point, after a breakfast scramble fail, as they had no eggs and Arthur didn't know, apparently Mordie thought eggs was a great snack, every single day, while Arthur was at work. He explained seven different ways to make eggs, apparently he had aspiration to be a chief, or just fancied having gas every day of his life.

"It get's worse as you get older, trust me," Arthur told him, as the boy now sat and shoveled cereal into his mouth like a boss and gave his father a disgusted look. Arthur walked out, before he got sassy with him again and checked the clock, it was 10:05 AM, and Arthur wondered where the hell his ex wife was, as she was meant to pick Mordie up the night before, only didn't show up. And now, one might think that was alarming, but she did this all the time, she was always staying late at the office, 'working.' if you wanted to call it that. Looking at the date on his cell phone, as he pulled away from calling her for the third time in a row, did he finally realize what day it was, October 17. Oh, lovely, it was their anniversary. That was awkward, a little tiny bit, not that she ever remembered stuff like that, and they had been divorced long enough now, that it shouldn't hurt. Arthur didn't like looking at these things like they were bad things anyway, they weren't bad things, every single date, no mater the out come, means something. The day of his wedding, the day his son was born, the day he had his first real date, the day he had his first kiss, the day he moved to a small town to help his mum run a coffee shop. It all mattered to Arthur, there were a million little dates, a million little memories that Arthur never wanted to forget.

On the fourth go around with the phone, she finally answered. "What do you want, Arthur?" came her voice, in a snip. "I'm at work."

"Oh a Saturday...again?" Arthur shot back, because she always did this, she would go weeks without seeing Mordie, in the name of nothing else but getting to the top of her career. Arthur tried, and tried, and it was half the reason they divorced, but he never got her to see what really mattered, family and friends, and for the last seven years, she was missing her son grow up. She wasn't going to get back these years. It was just like with his father, he missed Arthur's life, most of it, everything important that happened to Arthur, everything that mattered to him, Uther didn't see and didn't care to see, because he was a important businessman. "So, I suppose that means you're not taking Mords this weekend?"

"You know that I want to, but my career comes first."

Arthur rolled his eyes, because when did that statment become okay? "Yeah, alright, fine, come over during the week and see him then, because I'm sure he misses you."

"I'll see if I can," she said, in a whisper, because obviously someone came in that needn't know she was on the phone. "I have to go, Arthur, Mr. Flicker just walked in."

"Yeah, bye, Mith."

He hung up, and just at that moment Mordie walked in, spoon of peanut butter in his hand. That reminded him of someone, he didn't say it though, because his twelve year old son probably really didn't give a damn, but Arthur would be sure to try to make him. "Was that Mum?" he asked, as he plopped down in the steat next to Arthur on the sofa. "She isn't coming, is she?"

"No," Arthur admitted, because he wasn't going to sugar coat it. "Maybe she'll come over during the week though."

"Yeah, doubt it," he sighed, and Arthur felt his heart hurt a little for his son. He just watched him for a minute, licking his spoon. He was a precious boy, the best thing Arthur had ever done, and to think...he was an accident, though, that made sense, as the best things Arthur always did, were accidents. That was just how he was, and he loved it, or at least he learned to love it.

"You know what day it is?" Arthur, suddenly, asked, as he got up and walked over to his TV stand, in one of the drawers was where he kept all his photo albums, and yes...Arthur was that lame.

"Cake day?" Mordie offered, with smirk, as he saw his father walking back toward him. "Please tell me these have all been replaced with cake pictures, am I right?"

"No," Arthur sat back down, and opened up one of the books. These were from when Arthur first moved with his Mum, to run the DeBois coffee shop. So, that meant very weird, very preteen Arthur was about to come his sons way. It was always nice to reopen these every so often, and just look at them. It made Arthur happy to know he had such great memories and stories to tell his son, a good few had to wait for his boy to get older, but he was almost there.

"Don't you ever just...Google cakes and look at them?" Mordie offered, as he was forced to get a book in his lap. He sighed, because he knew what was coming. "Ah, this is not cake."

"No, look, that's grandma," he pointed, with a smile. "We should visit her this summer, huh?"

"We visit her every summer; I want to go to Disneyland."

"Boy, am I made of money?"

"Nah, but Grandpa Prick is."

"Don't call him a prick...I mean, true, but, don't call him that," Arthur parented and turned the page of the photo book. There was a photo of Arthur there, with all of his mates. This was probably around the same that the whole bakery thing happened. "Hey, did I ever tell you about the time I committed arson?"

"Yeah, a few times, Dad..." Mordie said, once again, pretty dryly. Arthur nodded, not discouraged by his son's disinterest and continued flipping pages. He looked at the last few pages in silence, not needing the company of his son to look at these, because most of the pictures in the later part of the book were just pictures of him and Merlin. He closed that book and picked up the one from Mordie's lap. He was now flipping through TV channels, one day he would appreciate these pictures, he was just in in that 'my dad is a super dork' phase, and he wasn't wrong there. The next book was Arthur and Mithian's wedding album and the very first picture he opened to was his sons wet, toothless face. He was only one and a half when they got married and he was their ring bearer. The one on the other page was Arthur's grooms men. There was Arthur, looking slightly awkward, with a stupid haircut, in his suit and bowtie, Leon, his best man next to him, and then Percy and Lance, completely normal blokes, then Merlin, looking entirely too happy to be, literally, in his exes wedding, and then Gwaine just there, bowtie undone and jacket messed up, arms flung over both Lance and Merlin's shoulders. Looking back, Gwaine definitely thought he looked cool, and even know...Arthur still had to agree, he did.

XXX

"So, I was thinking on Monday, instead of going to school, I could make a pie," Mordie said, as he walked along side Arthur through the store. Arthur rolled his eyes. "I was thinking something American, like apple?"

"No, you're going to school," Arthur told him, though, he had certainly took off from school more times than this mother ever knew. He hoped Mordie never did that, because Arthur would have a bigger cow than his mother would have, even if he did like to think he was pretty understanding about how boys will be boys. It was more about Arthur being a bit over protective. "No pie on Monday, but...there could be pie tonight."

Modrie smiled, "You drive a hard bargain, Pops..."

"Oh my god..." Arthur expressed, following behind his son, as he ran off. Two hours later, and after spending way too much money for just an egg run, Arthur was back home, sitting on the sofa again, while his son baked away in the kitchen. He could hear banging of bowls and spoons every so often, and very quiet swears. He guessed that chief dream was long off, but he was only twelve. The idea that his son already had an idea of what he wanted to do with his life kind of gave him anxiety, he couldn't lie there, once Mordie left Arthur would be entirely alone, and that just seemed depressing as hell.

There was a loud bang that came from the kitchen, right as Arthur's phone began to ring. He low key hoped it was Mith, because despite how Mordie barely spoke of it, he knew how it would hurt him so much worse later on. However, it wasn't Mith, it was his mother. He smiled, as he hit the talk button.

"Hey, Mum."

"Arthur," her voice made him frown, suddenly, she sounded upset.

"What's up?"

"Arthur...Arthur, something happened, something...very bad." Arthur's heart sunk, and his stomach turned, the very first thought that came to his mind was Merlin, did something happen to Merlin? Because nothing else could be that bad, if something very bad has happened, then it had to be to Merlin. His heart literally hurt, and he couldn't breathe. "Arthur...Hunith, she...she's-"

Arthur's eyes widened, he didn't even let her finish. "No..."

"She's gone, Honey," his mother admitted, painfully. "And...and I don't know what to do."